OLDaily

A 148-year-old newspaper is the latest recruit to UGA’s journalism school
Barbara Allen, Poynter, 2021/11/10

This is a great story and one that really shows how learning can combine with real-world activities to play a vital role in the community. Basically what happened was that the editor and publisher of a small town newspaper was getting to retire and planned to shut the paper down. Instead, she ended up donating it to the local school of journalism. Paid interns are running it for now, and they will turn it over to a capstone class of journalism students in January. It's a lot more structured than I would have done it. For example, rather than have the students rotate between predefined roles, I would have turned over all management of the paper to them, so they can try new models. And I would have made it less overtly focused on being a "sustainable business model". But those are quibbles over an initiative that otherwise has my enthusiastic support.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Twitter’s subscription product, Twitter Blue, launches in the U.S., and yes, it lets you undo tweets
Sarah Scire, Nieman Lab, 2021/11/10

It also launched in new Zealand, Canada and Australia. To me the major feature isn't the 'undo tweet' option (after all, 'delete' has worked for ages) but rather access to ad-free verions of news content (but you still have to pay for the subscription, so again, who cares). Other services like bookmark folders seem to resemble what I've been using in RSS readers for some time now. If Twitter weren't so toxic I would consider subscribing, but why would I contribute to a platform that has spent the last decade weaponizing hate? I've always liked the potential of Twitterm but to me, right now, that's the deal-breaker. But if this doesn't bother you, here's a guide to the features.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Notes on FutureU Podast “Explained: What is an OPM?”
Phil Hill, Phil on Ed Tech, 2021/11/10

From the Phil Hill's post: "Today the FutureU podcast, hosted by Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn, released a new episode based on an interview with me – “Explained: What is an OPM?” I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and their new explainer style, and I hope the episode can be used as a resource to capture the basics of the Online Program Management (OPM) market." You can ignore all the prompts to sign up; you can listen directly from the web page or, if you scroll down past the forms, you can read the transcript. I too like the idea of providing 'explainer' podcasts.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

What If Free Online Courses Weren’t Inside 'Walled Gardens'?
Jeffrey R. Young, EdSurge, 2021/11/10

I've just finished listening to this podcast from EdSurge interviewing me about a conference presentation I made a few weeks ago on removing login barriers from open online learning. Jeff Young also brings in George Siemens to round out the discussion, and it's interesting to see once again how our views contrast but also mesh quite nicely. I should take pains to say here that my position does not amount to saying there should be no signup ever; what I'm talking about is open access to MOOCs and learning resources. If you want an email newsletter, you'll have to provide an email to send it to (d'uh). And if you want AI-supported search services, you need to provide data to inform and train that AI. My point is that this sort of thing should be optional, should not collect more data than is needed to provide the system, and not converted into a barrier preventing all access to and sharing of learning resources. Here is the original audio from my side of the interview.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

A novel taxonomy of student-generated video styles
Rosa Arruabarrena, Ana Sánchez, César Domínguez, Arturo Jaime, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2021/11/10

The premise of this article is simple: how should we classify student-created educational videos? The authors look at some existing classification schemes and offer one of their own; major categories include things like talking heads, whiteboard videos, acted scenes, digital animation, demo, and more. It is "important to take into account the way students themselves make these videos," write the authors. "These types of videos reflect the tastes of students when making a video, which do not necessarily coincide with those of teachers."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

10 Top Educational Android Apps in 2021
Harikrishna Kundariya, LMS Pulse, 2021/11/10

The first three items on the list are MOOC providers - Coursera, Udemy, and EdX - and these are followed by slightly more specialist apps - Duolingo and Khan Academy. LinkedIn Learning i the main professional app, and a number of tools - Photomath, Quizlet, Sololearn and Brainly - round out the ten. By 'top' here the author probably means something 'most popular'. I don't really focus on apps for mobile phones, because these then to be closed and platform-dependent, but there is a whole world of them.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Responsible Use Policies
Terry Freedman, ICT & Computing in Education, 2021/11/10

The idea of a 'responsible' use policy, as compared to an 'acceptable' use policy, is that it allows that it is the student or the user that is ultimately making the decision on how to use the equipment. But after looking at the policies, "in many cases the only discernible difference between the two types of policy is that one word," and he suggests that "if you are going to hand responsibility over to students, you have to do a bit more – well, a lot more, actually." But what? For starters, consulting with students on the policies. And removing phrases saying something can't be used "unless the teacher has given permission." And "it is really depressing to read a policy that includes, or worse, starts with, a long list of 'Don’ts'."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]